“I win,” Lynnie said indifferently, setting her controller on the floor in front of her.

Zac writhed around on the floor. Again. “C’mon! Just one more game! I can beat you, I know it!” he cried.

“No,” Lynnie whined. “My fingers are numb, Zac. Give up already.” She stood up and made her way to the couch. “Life goes on,” she told him. Then, sitting down next to Tay, she added, “Have a brownie.”

“If there’s any left,” Ike put it.

Tay looked up and grinned, licking his fingers of the remnants of his n-teenth brownie. “What?” he asked, finding everyone in the room staring at him.

“You’re a pig when it comes to brownies, Tay,” Jessie explained bluntly.

Taylor looked at his little sister. “Well, wasn’t that endearing,” he asked sarcastically.

Jessie just shrugged. “Just letting you know I love you, Tay,” she said.

“Oh, yeah?” he asked, standing up and crossing to the love seat his sister was sitting on. In one swift movement, he scooped Jessie up and held her upside down at the knees with one arm. With his free hand, he tickled her stomach until she squealed. “I love you, too, Jessie!”

“Save me!” Jessica cried, twisting and writhing in an attempt to break free. “Ike!” she plead. “Please! Help!”

With a sigh, Isaac stood up and crossed the room until he was behind Taylor. In a swift movement, he pulled the arm his younger brother was using to tickle Jessie with behind his back. Slowly, Taylor released Jessie’s legs, laying her on the floor gently. As soon as she was safely on the ground, he shoved backward in an attempt to knock Ike over. He failed.

Avery walked into the room and cast a doubtful glance at her older brothers. “Boys,” she sighed, rolling her eyes.

I laughed.

Taylor and Isaac fell to the floor and began rolling around. Avie carefully stepped over them and made her way to the couch. “Are you two ever gonna grow up?” she asked.

Just then, Diana walked into the room. She cleared her throat and Tay and Ike both froze and looked up at her. “Why don’t you all go outside? It’s a nice day,” she suggested.

“Yeah!” Avie and Jessie chorused. And before their older brothers had a chance to stand up, they were pulling at their arms, demanding, “Hurry up!”

Within five minutes, Evie, Lynnie, Isaac, Taylor, Zac, Jessie, Avie, Mack, and I were outside.

Taylor immediately picked up a basketball and began dribbling it. “How about we play some b-ball?” he suggested, shooting the ball and making a basket.

“Yeah,” Zac agreed. “We could play guys-against-girls.”

Evie smiled. “Okay, who’s who?” she teased.

Tay gave a low whistle as he picked up the basketball again. “That was low, Eve,” he said, lobbing it at her.

Without missing a beat, Evie caught the ball and threw it at the net, making a swish. She turned to Taylor and smiled. “I get it from Jaye,” she told him with a shrug.

I gave Evie a wounded look. “Fine, I see how it is,” I told her. “It’s on now, Sherman. Let’s take this outside.”

“Uh, Jaye-Jae,” Zac said slowly. “We are outside.”

I smiled at him. “Don’t stress over it. It’s just a figure of speech,” I said. “Okay, so who’s on what team?”

“Well, I’m definitely not on yours,” Evie said with playful indigence. She smiled.

After picking the basketball up from beneath the net, Isaac stepped toward me. “I’ll be on your team,” he offered.

Taylor rolled his eyes and grinned at his brother. Isaac pegged the ball at his head. Tay caught it and threw it back. Ike caught the ball as well and was about to throw it back when I grabbed it from him. “Now, now, boys,” I teased. Isaac just smiled and tried to take the ball from my hands as Zac walked over to where Evie was standing.

“I’ll on Evie’s team,” he said.

“Me too,” Lynn agreed.

Jessie walked over to where Isaac and I were and snatched the ball from my hands. “I’ll be on Jaye and Ike’s team,” she said, dribbling the basketball. She looked at the two of us and smiled.

“To think I saved you from Tay earlier,” he muttered teasingly to Jessica. She shrugged.

Tay walked over to Evie, Lynnie, and Zac. “I’ll be on this team,” he announced.

“Okay, then we get Avie and Mack,” Isaac decided, seizing the basketball from his younger sister and tossing it into the air.

“No fair,” Zac called. “You get five?”

Ike caught the ball and held it between his arm and side. “Zac, it’s Avery and Mackie,” he said obviously. Zac just nodded.

“All right, let’s shoot to see who gets the ball first,” Evie suggested, walking toward where a free-throw line would be.

Isaac turned to me. “Do you want to shoot?” he asked.

I gave a small laugh. “You’d better do it,” I told him. Then, cupping my hands around my mouth, I whispered, “I really suck at basketball.”

He smiled. “Okay. Looks like I’m taking it then,” he said, grinning.

When Ike had made his way to where Evie was standing, she asked, “Do you wanna go first?”

He shrugged. “If you don’t want to.”

“Well,” she said, “you’ve already got the ball, so go for it.”

Isaac nodded and turned to the basket. He shot the ball and made it.

I walked over and picked up the ball as it bounced on the pavement beneath the basket. “Incoming!” I called, tossing it to Evie.

She caught the ball and took aim. A split second later, she threw the ball up in the air. It struck the backboard and deflected back to her. She grabbed it and pitched it at Ike. “Your ball,” she said with a shrug.

I grabbed Isaac’s wrist and looked at his watch. “We’ve been playing for nearly an hour and a half,” I told him, taking in a deep breath.

He wiped the sweat from his forehead. “Yeah. Betcha never thought a game up to twenty points would take so long,” he said with a shrug.

Lynnie gave the ball a pitiful bounce and looked at Tay and Ike. “It’s sixteen-sixteen. I say next point wins,” she suggested.

The two of them shrugged. “Any objections?” Taylor asked generally. No one replied. “Okay,” he decided. “Next point wins. Now let’s play.”

Lynnie nodded as everyone took their places. She checked the ball with Avie and then passed attempted to pass it to Evie. However, Isaac was blocking her and intercepted the ball.

He gave a quick look around before throwing the ball my way. I had one hand on it when Tay grabbed it from me. He dribbled a few steps before setting himself up for a shot.

Oh, no you don’t, I thought, jumping at him and knocking the ball from his fingertips. Once gaining control of it, I dribbled until I was in a decent shooting position. Just as I shot the ball, a weight came crashing into my body, sending me sprawling for the pavement.

After a moment, I propped myself up on my palms. “Ouch,” I said without emotion.

“Oh, jeez, are you okay?” Isaac asked from beside me.

“Yeah,” I managed to say, pushing myself into a sitting position.

“Oh, yeah. Nice going, Ace,” Taylor said sarcastically. “Block someone on your own team. Brilliant strategy, Ike.” He grinned.

“Hey, it went in, didn’t it?” Isaac shot back.

I smiled slightly. At least the game was over. I examined my palms momentarily, finding minor pavement scrapes on them, and then looked at my legs. My left leg had a bad scrape on it, covering my knee and calf. It was bleeding.

“Uh, do you guys have any, like, rubbing alcohol or peroxide or something?” I asked.

Isaac looked at me and noticed the scrape for the first time. He held his hands out to me. “I’ll show you where it is,” he offered.

I took his hands and he helped me up. With his help, I limped into the house.

Diana sighed when she saw me. “Your parents are going to think I abused you,” she said with a small smile, shaking her head.

I shrugged. “I guess I’m just accident prone,” I told her.

Isaac helped me into the bathroom and I sat down on the toilet lid. “You know, I’m getting the strangest sense of deja vu,” he said, picking up a first aid kit.

I smiled. “I wonder why,” I said sarcastically. I reached down and began unwrapping the ACE bandage from my right ankle. Isaac gave me a questioning look, so I said, “My ankle’s fine now. Which is more than I can say for this bandage. I should’ve taken it off before playing.”

He smiled. “Yeah,” he agreed, unscrewing the top from a clear plastic bottle. He poured some liquid from it onto a cotton ball and touched it to the scrape on my leg.

I took in a sharp breath. “Thanks for the warning,” I muttered.

“Sorry,” he murmured. “Do you want to do it?”

“No,” I said quickly. “Go ahead.”

Isaac nodded and slowly cleaned out the entire scrape. It stung very badly, but I tried not to let it show. Instead, I stared at the ring on Ike’s left middle finger. I stared at it until everything else became a blur. Surprisingly, it took my mind off the pain.

“Okay,” he said at last, snapping my attention back to reality. “Should I put a Band-Aid or gauze or something on this now?”

“Naw,” I said, shaking my head. “Just leave it. It’ll be fine as long as I keep it clean,” I assured him.

He nodded and cleaned up the first aid kit. When finished with that task, he turned to me and said, “Jaye, I’m really sorry for knocking you over -”

I cut him off by gently touching my lips to his. “Don’t worry about it,” I said softly.